Maybe I could just huck myself off the roof of my apartment. I think they had a fence around the edge of the building, but I could cut that open. I’d probably land on another roof, but there was probably enough of a fall to do the job.
“What the fuck was that?” Oh, and Marine was here. Great. This mind demon was making me sound like a psycho and now other people got to see it.
“This guy’s really fucking with me, Marine. I think he’s a lizard person.”
“Well, something’s wrong with you. Probably him too, but still.”
The pizza was cooked questionably quickly. Really. Like three minutes, tops. It made me uncomfortable, but he left it and just asked if we needed anything else and then left himself.
A quiet fell over the table while we were eating, at least after a few comments on how the meatball was okay and how hedging bets with the half cheese was a smart play. My newly fake hand caught my eye and it put a weird feeling in the pit of my stomach. The waiter came back right then, for some insane reason scooping up the greasy napkins we’d used to dab the pizza.
“Not a fan of the grease huh? Ha ha.”
I slammed my hands on the table. “Dude, fuck sake. Come on. Can’t we just fucking eat?!”
It was way worse than I wanted it to be. I immediately felt awful. Marine was looking at me like I’d slapped the guy.
“Wow. Sorry, man. Sorry. I’ll just… go.”
The waiter seemed entirely human to me and then I felt even worse. He’d left before my brain had worked through everything I was thinking.
I was exhausted. “I’m sorry, Marine. I know that was… It’s been a rough little bit.”
She frowned, looking down at the pizza in front of her. “I should be the one apologizing. I mean… I just keep dragging you with me. You lost your hand, that guy in the jail… I can’t even thank you right, really. And I can’t apologize right.”
It was finally dark outside. The day had seemed so long that I’d lost track of it somewhere. And we weren’t done.
“I don’t think you need to apologize. Maybe work on thanking me, though.” An exhausted laugh was all I could manage, but I forced a decent smile. “I signed up. And I don’t regret any of it. Plus we’re not done.” I felt my energy return a little, thinking that. I got up from the booth. “I have to go do a horrible thing now.”
I walked over to the counter and looked into the back. The waiter was just sort of standing there, not really doing anything. There were decent odds that he planning on living back there until we left.
“Hey! Uh… hey man! Waiter guy.” He came to the swinging door to the kitchen and pushed it open without a word. “Look, I’m really sorry. I just…” I held up my hand. “I lost my hand and this guy tried to fuck my mouth and I have a chip in my ass—”
“Not anymore.” Marine decided to be helpful in keeping me factually accurate.
“Well, I had a chip removed from my ass after one got put in there. And I’m sorry. Like, properly sorry.”
He looked at my hand and then Marine and then me. “Apology accepted.”
“Yeah?”
He gave that waiter smile again. “Yeah. And just to show there’s no hard feelings, the pie’s half price.”
“Great… half price pizza. Thanks, man.”
“Don’t mention it. Ha ha.”
He went back into the back room and I went back to my seat.
“I now have regrets.”
Marine raised an eyebrow as if to say “oh?” as she took another bite.
“I regret apologizing to the lizard man.”
The savage responded with her mouth full. “But half price pizza.” She held up her slice.
“But at what cost, Marine?”
We finished the pie and I made her pay. She’d promised me dinner. I waited outside. When she came through the door I was quick to turn around.
“This doesn’t count as dinner.”
“Bullshit, half price pizza is still pizza. And you left me in there with that guy.”
The latter part of that argument was sound, but the former was unacceptable.
“Who says I wanted pizza for my lost-a-hand-for-you dinner?”
“Who says getting to pick was implied in my paying for a dinner for you?”
“You’re a terrible person.”
“At least I pass for a person. Pizza guy…” She shook her head.
We started for a bus stop and caught one just before it started to pull off. Somehow, in defiance of all sanity, the bus was empty when we got on except for one private seat. I wanted to run up and down the middle aisle, but I restrained myself because I was an adult now and, honestly, I felt a little bloated from the pizza.
I flopped down in the seat next to Marine and let out a massive groan.
“The meatball was a bad choice. And I have to piss.”
“Why didn’t you go?”
“All part of the plan.” I gave an exaggerated wink. “So, what do we do after we slap that thing into a wall?”
She looked at the box for a second and shrugged. “No idea.”
“You stole my plan.”
“It’s a good plan.”
Chapter
SEVENTEEN
We were outside the Vircore offices again. Weirdly, instead of that sinking feeling, I was really energetic and enthused. Too energetic almost. I was bounding around like an asshole. Marine had immediately headed around the side of the building, which seemed prudent though I wasn’t sure why. She stopped as soon as we were out of sight of anyone inside who might get curious what we were doing there at that time of night. The lobby was still lit, but after hours visitors coming through main reception likely weren’t going to be quietly watched while they just did whatever they wanted, so presumably that was out.
I looked around the tiny courtyard and spotted a few sockets in the stone of the building exterior. Those
